Recently in FAVL Category

Despite more and more frequent power, water and internet outages here in Ouaga, the team here in Burkina has been pretty busy and productive lately. Here's is some of the stuff we've been working on:

- Following up on the last stages Ouargaye library project. The librarian was chosen and is currently in Dohoun for a two week training with Alidou. After the training is over, Alidou will accompany the librarian back to Ouargaye to make sure he is comfortable in his new role. We've been making lists of the book donations that will be sent down there and printing "fiches de sorties" and "cartes d'abonnement" for the librarian's use. All that is left is to locally purchase the rest of the library's inventory.

- Outlining and writing the 2012 Annual Report that will be distributed to all partners and donors at the beginning of the new year.

- Revising PowerPoint presentations with current statistics, prices and photos and strategizing on where and to whom to give these presentations.

- Planning a trip to visit the northern libraries. We will conduct evaluations and have a meeting with the three librarians to reinforce their training in keeping account books, planning activities and sending monthly reports to Ouagadougou. I've never seen the libraries in Pobé and Béléhédé, so I'm pretty excited about this.

- Dounko accompanied the RWA study abroad students on an excursion to the economic capital of Burkina, Bobo-Dioulasso, and to the tourist sites in Banfora.

- Antoinette, our village in Houndé, planned some World Handwashing Day activities at a couple of the village libraries. Look for photos and a report soon!

Alidou reports:

Pendant le mois de septembre 2012, j'ai mené des activités entrant dans le cadre de préparation du camp de lecture de Niankorodougou et l'arrivée des étudiants du programme RWA. Le 09 septembre a été mon départ sur Niankorodougou. Le camp a été du 10 au 15 septembre. Vingt élèves du CM1 des deux écoles A et B ont répondu à l'appel.

Cette deuxième édition de camp de lecture à Niankorodougou a vu à l'ouverture la présence des autorités : le maire de la commune Monsieur Ouattara Drissa et le préfet Monsieur Sarambé Mahamadou. Ils sont venus apporter leurs mots d'encouragement aux élèves et à toute l'équipe d'animation pour que ce camp de lecture apporte beaucoup de connaissances aux élèves et qu'il se déroule dans des bonnes conditions.

Pendant six jours, six animateurs ont fait preuve de présence et de travail il s'agit de Boué Alidou comme animateur, Traoré Seydou comme enseignant, Ouattara Karidia comme bibliothécaire et  Ouattara Souleymane comme assistant avec l'assistance des volontaires Ashley et Kelly.

Outre la fabrication de la poudre de Neem pour le brossage des dents, les autres activités ont été menées. Le pre-test, post-test et le test de niveau de lecture ont été faits. Le test de lecture nous a permis à identifier les lecteurs faibles que nous avons regroupés dans un même groupe pour pouvoir mieux s'occuper d'eux et de les dégager de toute influence de leurs camarades. Les enfants ont aimé plusieurs activités pendant le camp surtout le Sparkle.

Chaque enfant a reçu une brosse et une patte pour désormais lutter efficacement contre les maux de dents. D'une façon générale le camp de lecture de Niankorodougou s'est très bien passé. Tous habillés en tee-shirts et une restauration convenable et équilibré matin et midi pendant six jours. La fin du camp a observé un post-test et l'évaluation finale dont les progrès de quelques élèves constaté de part et d'autres.  

Many of the librarians have taken what they learned at the summer reading camps, and have used the information to plan activities at their libraries. Here are some of the activities that took place at the Burkina libraries during the month of September:

Koumbia: alphabet lesson, workshop of sounds, informational session on hand washing
- J'ai appris à 04 enfants dont 02 garçons et 02 filles à lire quelques lettres de l'alphabet. Ils ont réussi à lire les lettres proposés. Ils ont promis de revenir une prochaine fois pour apprendre d'autres lettres. J'étais joyeuse de leur travail parce que ce sont des futurs élèves.
- C'est atélier des sons. C'était avec 05 enfants dont 03 filles et 02 garçons. Ils ont participé à l'activité avec enthousiasme. C'était amusant pour eux. La séance d'activité s'est bien terminée.
- J'ai fait la sensibilisation sur le lavage des mains. Les enfants ont repondu aux questions posé moyennement. Nous étions satisfaite car l'enfant avait déjà des notions sur l'activité.

Dohoun: BINGO
Notre activité de ce jour 04 septembre 2012 avait pour nom le BINGO. Le BINGO est un jeu peu connu des enfants mais en ce jour n'avait pas vu une grande participation car seulement 05 enfants ont été effectif. Debuté par des explications des principes du jeu les enfants ont été très content car leur gamme de jeu venait de s'elargir et cela les permet à mieux s'amuser surtout le jeu de BINGO qui est un jeu de mots. Tout joyeusement nous nous separions en esperant découvrir un nouveau jeu la prochaine fois.

Dimikuy: lecture de Un Arbre Pour Lollie
Le dimanche 23 septembre, nous avons eu une séance de lecture d'un livre du titre Un Arbre Pour Lollie de l'auteur Fatou Keïta avec un petit groupe de 05 enfants dont 03 garçons et 02 filles. Pour permettre aux enfants à savoir qu'il ne faut pas rejeter quelqu'un qui a le VIH/SIDA parce que la personne a besoin d'être auprès de ses amis. Au début, la question suivante a été posée: Est-ce que c'est possible d'être ami avec quelqu'un qui a le HIV/SIDA? Chacun a repondu non parce que c'est une sale maladie qui contamine et en plus il n'y a pas de vaccin contre cette maladie. Quand ils ont suivit attentivement la fin de la lecture, ils ont compris que le virus de cette maladie se trouve dans le sang et ne peut pas te contaminer si tu n'es pas en contact avec le sang d'autruit et les objets chouets.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: putting a sign in front of the FAVL office in Ouaga was an excellent PR move. We have visitors come all the time and ask about our work. People want to know exactly what the "friend" of a local village library is and does. Either Donkoui or I sits down with them and explains our projects and presents them with a pamphlet. And then we bring out the big guns: the RWA books. They're always a big hit, and people usually end up purchasing a few copies. A couple of recent visitors we've had have included:

- Barry Seydou who wrote in the visitor's log, "Je suis vraiment très content d'avoir découvrir votre domaine, et ensuite je suis haïr de m'assoir discuter avec vous, et en plus c'est une très bonne idée d'avoir pensé à l'avenir du développement et l'agrandissement d'esprit des enfants de notre cher pays le Burkina Faso."

- Oumarou Tankoano, the president of Population et Développement du Sud (PODS), an organization here in Burkina. He was here for quite a while, taking notes and learning about the libraries and the summer reading camps. He is interested in pursuing a partnership with FAVL and perhaps working with us to build a library in the east of Burkina. In the visitor's log, he wrote, "C'est merveilleux ce que j'ai constaté lors de cette visite. Félicitations à l'association mais aussi mes encouragements pour les projets dans lesquels elle s'engage."

- A local author who presented us with a copy of his book to show his support for and solidarity in the fight against illiteracy in Burkina.

One of the sessions we included in the reading camps this year was on how to properly care for a library (or any) book - don't fold the book and put it in your pocket; don't leave the book in the rain; don't leave the book for your little brother to get a hold of; don't bend the pages to turn them. Very important life lessons. The librarians lead the sessions at each of the camps. I came across these pictures today from Dimikuy: one of a student showing his fellow campers how to turn a book's pages and another of all the students sitting outside, practicing turning pages of a book without destroying the pages. They made me smile, so I thought I'd share.


 

In addition to running summer reading camps and preparing for visits from RWA study abroad students, librarians continue to run their regular monthly activities. Here are a few of the activities that the Burkina librarians reported on during the month of August:

Dimikuy: Causerie avec les femmes sur l'importance de la bibliothèque
Le 11 août, Erica Ernst est venu travailler avec les femmes du village sur l'importance de la bibliothèque. Elles ont dit pourquoi elles ont aimé la bibliothèques dans le village. Elles ont aussi proposé d'avoir leur propre programme à la bibliothèque comme les séances de conte et les causeries. A la fin, elles ont été compensé chacune une boule de savon de la part d'Erica.

Dohoun: L'utilisation du dictionnaire
Huit enfants c'est l'effectif de ce jour samedi le 18 août sur l'utilisation du dictionnaire au sein de notre bibliothèque. Chacun a donné un mot que nous avons écrit au tableau et nous avons essayé de le trouver dans le dictionnaire. C'est à partir du dictionnaire que nous trouvons le sens large des mots que nous trouvons difficiles. (NB: Pour bien chercher un mot dans le dictionnaire, il faut que nous connaissons bien les 26 lettres de l'alphabet.)

Le samedi 1er septembre 2012 et le lundi 03 septembre 2012, les maires des communes de Béréba et de Koumbia ont respectivement procédé à lu signature des conventions portant sur la cession des bibliothèques créées par FAVL aux dites communes.

En effet, un atelier de réflexion tenu en juin 2011 avait permis à l'équipe de FAVL, les maires et leurs représentants d'adopter des propositions en vue de leur implication dans la gestion des bibliothèques dans leur ressort territorial parmi lesquelles les conventions.

Le but de ces conventions est d'amener les communes à partager les charges financières avec FAVL de manière progressive de janvier 2013 à décembre 2015.

A few of my favorite camp pictures thus far...

One of the hard things about being American and working with kids in this country is you really notice the lack of critical thinking skills. A lot of learning is based on rote memorization. Exams really just test how well you recopied and memorized what was on the board since the last exam instead of how well you understood the material. Even at reading camps, the animators often emphasize how well a student has pronounced all the words on a page and respected punctuation. Both of these things are very important, especially for kids who have poor reading skills to begin with. But often they reach the end of a perfectly-read page and you ask them a question: "How old is Fatimata?"and you receive a blank stare as a response.

So this year, we tried to incorporate a couple of activities into the program that emphasized critical thinking. One of the activities was very simple: creating leaves that would be placed on the reading tree located in the library. Four out of the six days, campers had to come in and create a leaf for the tree based on the book they had read at home the night before. The task was simple. The kids had to only had to identify the title of the book, the name of the author and the name of the reader (themselves).

In Karaba, it was enlightening to see how many of the kids (even the strong readers) struggled with this exercise during the very first session. Even after we had explained what a title and author were, several of the kids wrote their own names after "auteur:" The other sessions were easier, and after a couple of tries, the kids were eventually able to point out the titles and authors of books they were not familiar with.

After the camps, the librarians attached the leaves to the trees, so now not only do the kids have a little bit better understanding of the books they read, they also get to bring their friends to the library to show off how many leaves they have on the reading tree.

Another activity that we included this year is called "Regardez la couverture...et devinez!" ("Look at the cover...and guess!"). Basically, in small groups, kids had to examine the title of a book and the image on the cover and guess what would happen in the story. The facilitator in the group would also stop the story periodically and have the kids guess what would happen in the following pages based on the images to come. In Karaba, the kids got good at associating the pictures and the text as well as guessing how the story would progress.

A Map of Africa
The World Map Project was something that was started by Peace Corps Volunteers to teach students in developing countries who may not have access to books, maps or television a little something about the world. Most volunteers create a world map at their site or help friends/neighbors create them at their sites at some point during their service. The project is great because it's fun and inexpensive and reassures you that your village will remember you long after you leave.

Antoinette and I decided we wanted to do a map at one of the libraries. In the end, we decided to be a little less ambitious and do a map of the continent of Africa. Since about 90% of Burkinabè school children cannot point Burkina Faso out on a map, we thought it was still something. We told Dounko and Alidou about our idea, and they suggested doing it at the Koumbia library.

So the weekend of August 3rd, Antoinette and I headed to Koumbia. We hired a mason to make a cement slab to smooth out a section of the wall outside of the library. When it dried, we got to work. The thing we did not take into account was rainy season. In normal conditions, the blazing Burkina noontime sun will dry anything within a couple of hours, but this is not the case during July and August, when most days are overcast and moisture constantly hangs in the air. So even after 24 hours after laying our coat of ocean blue, we were still working with only a semi-dry canvas. Then the night after we laid the finishes touches on the map, there was a huge rainstorm, which cause some of the colors to run. Even so, for the most part, the map looks nice and will be a good educational tool to have at the library.

J'aime la lecture!
After painting the map of Africa, there was a substantial amount of paint left over, and Antoinette and I realized we'd been bitten by the mural painting bug. Since we were both heading to Karaba for the reading camp, we decided to bring the paint with us and paint a mural at the library there. We decided we'd write "J'aime la lecture!" and have each kid put his or her handprint on the map. When we proposed the idea, we could tell the animators didn't really understand the concept or why we were so excited with our brilliant plan, but gave us the green light to do it. On Wednesday, we painted a big blue rectangle, and the campers gathered around to find out what we were doing. We just said it was a surprise and they would find out the next day. For the handprints, we got plastic gloves from the health clinic to put on everyone's hands to avoid mess, but we forgot we were dealing with primary school children. The glove plan quickly failed, but the kids didn't mind getting a little dirty. As the animators saw the progression of the mural, they began to understand, and were eager to get their own handprints on the wall. Even the librarian participated! There was a slight misunderstanding with a capital "J" that according to some resembled a "g," but everyone was quickly appeased when we awkwardly placed a handprint in the middle of the letter to obscure the resemblance. We then collected all the kids and took a series of class pictures in front of the mural.

The projects were a lot of fun to work on, and now Antoinette and I know that we get to leave a little piece of our work with FAVL and the villages even after we leave Burkina.